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Post by Kazuki Kaede on Mar 23, 2009 3:15:48 GMT -5
It was a surprisingly average school day. Same students, same teachers, same boring lectures. Kazuki quite enjoyed the usual routine. It felt much more comfortable and safe than the unexpected. However, the unexpected was always... unexpected. With the controversial murder case still in progress he wasn't always sure what to expect the next day, so he appreciated the calm days where not much happened. He wasn't as involved in it as some of the other people had been and he was glad to help where he was needed, but sometimes he had really wished he hadn't gotten involved at all. A wish for blissful ignorance? ....Nah. It was nice enough to have gotten that load off of his chest as embarrassing or difficult as it seemed at the time.
Once again though, he had been focusing on the negatives of the situation. He really needed to stop thinking in his free time. Or at least... he needed something better to think about. The boy gave a heavy sigh of self-annoyance and shook his head. As if that would happen.
He had told his friend Aki that he would make her lunch as usual, so he had been standing by the stairs at the end of the hallway where he usually waited for her. After waiting for another minute he finally decided to take a seat on one of the steps. On the edge of the step, of course. He wasn't sure how the janitor cleaned the stairs, but he'd bet his allowance there was built up dust in the corners.
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Aki Himura
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Sugar-High Sweet-Heart
Posts: 22
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Post by Aki Himura on Mar 27, 2009 2:57:01 GMT -5
"Zuki-chiiiii!" Aki chimed, ruffling the boy's hair fondly and dropping down next to him. "Don't sigh like that! Every time you give such a heavy and depressed sigh, you lose a bit of happiness and luck!" Her eyes spotted the second bento by his feet and her face brightened into an excited grin. "Ahhh!!! You made me a bentooooo!!" The girl leaned over to first give Kazuki a giant hug before plucking up the small box covered with a frog pattern.
"Ahh~ It's been a while since I had a bento made by Zuki-chii!" she hummed happily. Without wasting any time, she set aside her sketchbook and stuffed frog and opened up the bento box. "Itadakimasu!" Aki said, picking up the chopsticks and tasting one of the fried eggs. "Mmmm delicious as always, Zuki-chii!" She took a few more excited bites before suddenly stopping and and looking concerned, her hand still holding the chopsticks to her mouth. "And and and! I forgot to tell you--I made cookies today!" She twisted around and began searching around her stuffed animal and then patting down her pockets. "I know they're here--OH. Found them!" Aki produced a rather decorative pouch made of tissue paper. "We made them today in home ec. I've tasted them already, so they're not poisonous!" she hurried to explain. "You've been so busy lately, and looking kind of down... So I wanted to give these to you!"
Her attention shifted again, and she jumped to her feet with a sudden cry. "Ah! Do you want something to drink, Zuki-chii?" She pointed the chopsticks at the vending machine down the hall before looking down at her friend with a happy grin.
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Post by Kazuki Kaede on Mar 27, 2009 5:30:32 GMT -5
Kazuki nearly jumped at the sudden entrance of his friend, but once he collected himself he looked up at her with a smile. Lose a bit of happiness and luck? Oh god. He sort of needed all of the happiness and luck he could get with everything going on, so that would've been terrible. He didn't care if he was being superstitious, he wasn't going to chance it by sighing like that any more. "Yeah, it's kinda been awhile, so I thought you might enjoy it," he said timidly as she gave him a hug and stole the bento box before he could even pick it up for her. She certainly wasted no time to open it up and dig in, but it was always nice to know she enjoyed the food he had made for her.
Opening his own yellow box covered in tiny owls, he picked up a piece of fish first and happily took his time chewing it. It had turned out better than he actually thought it would, so he was content as well. He kept a smile on his face, but his expression was on of suppressed confusion and an almost fearful curiosity. "Cookies?" He watched her search around for a moment before she finally pulled out the tissue paper bag. Cookies. It wasn't that Aki ever made anything terrible, there was just a nagging voice in the back of his head whenever he accepted food from anyone else without knowing beforehand what had been put in it. Still, he happily took them when she handed them over. It was hard not to appreciate the fact that his friend would bother to give him her home ec cookies without eating them all herself, and... considering Aki was quite alive they couldn't be deadly. "Ah, these look good. Thanks!" Kazuki had been a little busy and he had also been focusing way too much on negative thoughts lately, so it was a nice enough treat just to have a good friend. He was just cheesy like that.
Though before he could find a way to nicely ask her what was in them she startled him again as she jumped to her feet. Kazuki looked up at her to see if something was wrong, but then gave a happy nod at her offer. "Drinks would probably be good before you choke on something with how fast you're eating." He was joking, of course, but it had worried him from time to time. He placed his own chopsticks to his chin for a moment as he contemplated on what to ask for. "Ummm... Prune juice maybe if they still have it! It's not too sweet and it's high in antioxidants."
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Aki Himura
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Sugar-High Sweet-Heart
Posts: 22
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Post by Aki Himura on Mar 27, 2009 17:32:15 GMT -5
Aki looked down at the boy with a playful glare. "I could inhale this entire bento box and not choke on anything. You know how skilled I am at the art of eating!" Could that really be considered a skill? Well, in her mind, it could really be considered an Olympic sporting event (she, of course, would take the gold metal).
Her smile fell and her expression shifted between one of horror and disgust. "P-prune juice, Zuki-chii?" she stuttered, doing her best to remain standing on her feet and keep a solid grasp on her bento box. "You are asking me to even think of buying p...p...prune juice?!" Aki stumbled dramatically, then immediately regained her cheerfulness and set down the box and chopsticks. "Okay!"
She skipped jogged over to the small gathering of vending machines down the hall, scanning their contents while fishing the change purse out of her pocket. "Let's see....... One for me," she said, slipping in the coins and selecting a melon soda. "And... oh look, one for Zuki-chii." The two nearly filled rows of prune juice were duly ignored. Really, who drank that stuff anyways? Her grandpa did, but even he didn't like it. Doctor's orders or something like that. "Stop being such an old man," Aki muttered, selecting an orange-lemon flavored juice for her friend.
"Sorry, prune juice fresh out!" she lied with a wide grin on her face. Chances that he would believe that were slim but he should have known better than to want prune juice.
((yay for cheating 8DDD))
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Post by Kazuki Kaede on Mar 27, 2009 19:47:59 GMT -5
He couldn't help but laugh at her statement. That was definitely true. For as long as he had known her, he knew that no one could really eat like she could even if he still worried. Though she looked more like she was going to kill over from his drink request. What was... wrong with prune juice? Kazuki frowned up at his friend. It may have been a taste you had to get used to, but it wasn't that bad and it was healthy! He wouldn't have said he was in love with the bitter drink, but he was going to chose it over something that might've been bad for him. Oh well. She seemed to bounce right back before he could say anything else about it anyway. Not that it was unusual, but he gave a shrug to himself and took a few more bites of his food before she returned. Once she did, he gave her a confused smile. Orange-lemon? That definitely wasn't prune juice and there was no way he was going to buy that they were all out. "Really? Well, that would just prove that it's not that bad. People wouldn't buy so much of it if it was," Kazuki joked in a faked logical tone before letting out another laugh. "Thank you though. This is just as good." At least it was still juice. He opened the drink and pulled a straw packed in his box out to drink it with. He always made it a rule not to drink directly from the can or pouch. Who knew whose hands had been all over it. He took a small sip of it and couldn't help but feel slightly thankful that his friend bought him the wrong beverage. It was tasty. "Soooo, how's class been, Aki-chan?" The most he knew of it so far was that she had rather dull classmates, but he hoped it was going well for her anyway. (It's not cheating! We're entitled! )
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Aki Himura
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Sugar-High Sweet-Heart
Posts: 22
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Post by Aki Himura on Mar 28, 2009 23:33:47 GMT -5
At Kazuki's confused smile, she simply gave him a "motherly" look and said "Prune juice at your age is a bad thing!" But then it passed off into a confident grin and she dropped back down onto the stairs. "Maybe. But for all you know the prune juice has been empty since three years ago and they never decided to refill it and they're too lazy to replace it with some other more USEFUL type of drink but hey--what do I know about businesses these days?" She laughed along with him, popping open the top of the soda and taking a sip of it before scooping up her bento.
"Class? Ahhhh history is so hard!" She lamented. "I got a 82 on the last test but I studied so hard for it. All those names and dates arggghhhh!" The girl tapped her temple with the back end of her chopsticks and let out a faint sigh. "Oh! But we got a new student at the beginning of the semester! He doesn't talk that much, and I thought I had scared him off the first day of class, but then he talked to me again after and so that means that I didn't scare him off and so it's all good!" Aki flashed a thumbs up at Kazuki and grinned.
"How are your classes going?! I never get to see you! Why are you always so busyyyy!" She made a sad face as she returned to eating the bento. "What will become of me if I don't get my daily dose of Zuki-chii and delicious food?!"
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Post by Kazuki Kaede on Mar 29, 2009 1:49:25 GMT -5
Oh, so now prune juice was bad for him. He was almost tempted to dare her to say that to his mother. That certainly would've been a funny conversation to watch, but he wasn't that cruel. He'd just drop it for now. "An 82 isn't bad at least, so you should still feel good about it. Think of all the people that didn't study!" Kazuki made an attempt to reassure her, before giving a curious look at the mention of a new student. Another one? Normally, he probably wouldn't have noticed that the school was gaining so many new students from outside of the area, but his involvement with the murder cases made it pretty noticable.
"This school sure is getting a lot of new students. This is just my first year here, but it seems a little weird in this tiny town. I'm glad you're getting along though," he said before she asked him of his own classes. "They've been fine. I had a lot of work to catch up on after last semester, but I've after been absent as much this semester so I'm doing alright. It's just a lot of stuff to study with midterms coming up. I'm just worried about English..."
Frowning, he paused to take another bite of his food. There was a lot to study, but really he hadn't even started. "With everything else going on it's just hard to concentrate right now," he admitted to her finally. There was just too much else on his mind. Still, it wasn't exactly a good excuse. "So, sorry I haven't been around much. I'll try to do better though! If you want I could even make it up to you somehow?"
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Aki Himura
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Sugar-High Sweet-Heart
Posts: 22
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Post by Aki Himura on Mar 30, 2009 18:28:39 GMT -5
"But I had to study so hard to get that 82! History just doesn't agree with me..." She sipped from her soda with a moody expression, silently cursing all those historical figures the had to study. When Kazuki brought up the strange amount of transfer students, she set down the soda and folded her arms over her chest in thought. "You think it has anything to do with... whatever it is you have been involved with? Kinda creepy to think that potential death by TV is waiting for all these new people. Maybe they're all being brainwashed and forced to move to Inaba! I mean, other wise who would willingly come here?" Aki hesitated as she picked the lunch box back up. "Well, don't get me wrong I love it here but I was born here so I'm kinda obligated to love it--I don't know anywhere else that well but it's still a great place none the less but really... My money is on brainwashing," she summarized around a mouthful of food.
The girl continued to eat, immediately forgetting the entire brainwashing plot death by TV subplot and instead concentrating on the food. "Ahhhh Zuki-chiiiii you shouldn't skip so much class. Or maybe try asking them if you could do independent study and just drop by from once a week or something to pick up new assignments. But then... I would have to stop by your house every morning to make sure you made me lunch, or else I would starve!!" She chewed absently on her chopsticks, making a sad sigh.
"Ah, really?! I get to hang out with you? Sure!" Aki perked up and looked over at her friend with a happy grin. "Hmmmm... I wonder what we should do~"
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Post by Kazuki Kaede on Mar 31, 2009 3:35:37 GMT -5
"I know that some people have been coming to the area temporarily because of interest in the case, but that can't be the only reasoning.... That is a really creepy thought though." Kazuki wanted to release another heavy sigh, but held it in remembering what Aki had told him earlier about that. The very last thing any of them needed was for people to have been brainwashed. It was highly unlikely anyway. However, rather than brush it aside immediately he let the theory sit for a minute. Well, lord, it was a crazy TV world that the mess centered around. Why the heck not? Who knew any more? It could've been a magical space cow corrupting people with alien milk for all he knew!
No, wait, that was too weird. .... Maybe. Kazuki shook his head at the thought. No, definitely too weird. He needed to really stop thinking about that now. Thankfully, Aki was always wonderful when it came to abruptly changing the subject. Pushing his imagination aside, he tried to put a happy expression back on his face as he looked back up at her. "My attendance has gotten a lot better, and I joined the Health Committee earlier this year as an extracurricular so they're not biting at my ankles any more. It'll be fine." If he were a meaner person, he would've made a comment about how she was more than capable of making her own lunches. However, he enjoyed making lunch for her too much to even dare think of saying it.
He let out a light laugh at her excited reaction to his offer instead. "If you'd want to hang out any time all you'd ever have to do is ask," he replied, resisting the urge to make a joke about stalking. Just spending time with her was enjoyable, so he knew whatever she would choose would be fun. The boy would've even suggested just staying home and cleaning her room since it had been awhile since he had done it, but that was probably out of the question. Heck, they could always actually study, too!
The black-haired boy smiled to himself, wanting to laugh again at the thought, but that's when the smile instantly turned into a frown. Actually, that was an unfortunately good idea. "Well, we still have midterms to look forward to..." It was a hint that he knew he needed to give, but part of him almost wished she'd suggest something else instead.
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Aki Himura
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Sugar-High Sweet-Heart
Posts: 22
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Post by Aki Himura on Mar 31, 2009 13:39:19 GMT -5
"Oh that's right, the Health Committee! How is that going? Are they nice? I've heard various things about them. The newspaper club wanted me to come along and take pictures for an article they wanted to do, but I had to pass because I was busy that day." Aki looked up at Kazuki with a broad smile. "Clubs are a good thing to get into. You get to meet a lot of new people and are a great way to unwind..." She arched an eyebrow suspiciously. "Then again, I think for you... it would just add stress, wouldn't it?" She giggled and picked up her soda.
"And let's see~~" Aki hummed in thought, rocking side to side slightly with energy. "And pffft to midterms!" she cried, punching one fist into the air and giving a determined stare to a startled student that passed through hall below the stairs. "From what I can tell, you and the others are totally stressed with your brainwashing TV plot madness!! You're smart enough to get along just fine without studying, so how about just taking a break for once? We can go down to the river before it gets too cold or something! Or we can do karaoke! Or take the train into the city!" Her excited grin was back on her face. "You just pick a day when you don't have to worry about TV land and we can go!" She didn't bother mentioning her own need to study, but she managed to do just fine this far with her usual habits. Why break routine?!
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Post by Kazuki Kaede on Apr 1, 2009 0:02:44 GMT -5
"It's going fine. They like to gossip a lot, but they're overall nice people. ...I think." He paused, taking a bite of his food. Who knew what they said about him behind his back for ditching them so many days the first semester. Oh well. He didn't need to worry about that, too. He shrugged to himself and nodded. "It is stressful sometimes, but it's nice being able to help out people, too."
Then, just as Kazuki had hoped, Aki was playing the devil on his shoulder. Normally, he would've played the angel and insisted they studied for the upcoming midterms, but... Well, if there was anything he had learned in the past few weeks it was that maybe it was fine to break the rules every now and then. Rather, shirk responsibilities in this case. "Alright! Let's forget studying then and go to the city for karaoke! Any day you want to go should be fine. Sunday maybe?" Kazuki replied cheerfully. It felt almost good to say it and he already felt less stressed. He wasn't going to dare go as far as agreeing to go to the river since it would definitely be freezing and full of bacteria, but karaoke did sound like fun. At least you could disinfect a microphone. Forget studying! Go have fun! ....Oh lord, he was going to regret it later, he knew it.
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Aki Himura
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Sugar-High Sweet-Heart
Posts: 22
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Post by Aki Himura on Apr 2, 2009 13:40:50 GMT -5
Aki punched her fist into the air again. "VICTORY!" This time, the chatter of several students from the stairs above them halted at her cry. The girl clapped her hands together excitedly. "I can't believe it! I'm actually getting Zuki-chii to forget studying and come to karaoke with me!" She got starry-eyed for a moment, wriggling in her spot in excitement. "Ah, Zuki-chii, you're finally experiencing an almost-complete life of a true high school student! First you're skipping classes, then you've joined a club, and now for not studying and going to karaoke instead!!" She reached out and patted her friend on the head, then decided to ruffle his hair in the process. "You learn fast, my young grasshopper!"
She started to shovel food back into her mouth with the usual gusto, making up for the time lost when she was talking. "Oh!" Aki suddenly shouted, covering her mouth with one hand as she tried to swallow her mouthful of food. "We should invite all the others! Like everyone on the whatsitscalled that saved you, huh? And I bet we can convince Kou-kun and Daisuke-kun to come along, too~" She flashed a thumbs up and jabbed it in Kazuki's direction. "Sounds good! Sunday it is! Tell them they better not study and tell people to stay out of the television because we're going to party it up at karaoke!"
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Post by Kazuki Kaede on Apr 5, 2009 1:33:59 GMT -5
Kazuki couldn't help but give an embarrassed smile when Aki interrupted the hallway chatter with her triumphant cry. It was official. She was far too happy for him to reconsider. Though her words that followed did make him feel like an awful student. Joining a club was still a plus, right? And it wasn't like he never did his work even when he skipped... He frowned worriedly for a moment, but quickly shrugged it off as he contemplated who to invite to go with them. The more the merrier, right? Well, depending on the people. He didn't really have a problem with anyone that Aki had mentioned though. It was certainly never boring being around any of them.
"That sounds like a good idea. I don't know if they'll all go, but I think they'd need the break, too," he agreed. He wasn't exactly best buddies with everyone yet, but from he knew at least half of them would enjoy it. Then Kou and Daisuke... he wasn't sure about them either, but from what he knew they seemed like people that would enjoy it? Who else... He wasn't sure if any of the people from Inoue would want to go, but it wouldn't hurt to ask the people in the other team as well. "We'll just see who we can ask in school today and then call everyone we miss, I guess. Since we don't want to spring it on them at the last minute."
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